The EPA’s decision could clear the way for possible U.S. regulation of these emissions, and is expected to spur action in Congress to pass carbon-capping legislation to curb global warming.

The Washington Post editorialized today in anticipation of the announcement, welcoming the declaration as a way to motivate Congress to take action, ” The EPA Readies a Hammer,” with the sub-hed, “Jolting Congress into action on greenhouse gases:

AS SOON as next week, the Environmental Protection Agency could follow through on an order from the Supreme Court to either declare carbon dioxide a pollutant or to say why it isn’t. That decision could usefully signal to the world that the United States is serious about regulating greenhouse gas emissions. But it should also send a shiver down Congress’s collective spine. Because the regulation of carbon will have a profound effect on the American economy, this vital task should be the responsibility of Congress, not of unelected officials at the EPA.

We read the Post’s argument this way: It’s inappropriate for regulators to engage in the greatest expansion of government control over the economy in U.S. history, raising the cost of energy, taxing the poor and making the United States globally uncompetitive.